Plenty of missing people stories don’t get resolved, so understandably, all their loved ones can do is contemplate the potential horrors that could have happened to them, like being lost and needing to survive, or being kidnapped, or, of course, being dead. Primbon is a story where a missing girl returns home, though her return seems suspicious, at least, according to Javanese superstition. So much could have been made with this premise. They could have delved into Rana’s possible trauma from the reason she was lost, or the way these superstitions hinder these victims from receiving help from others. The film at least shines during the moments between Dini, her mom, and Rana, as they try to get back to normal. But in prioritizing the family, Primbon is torn between being a family drama versus being a supernatural horror film, and ultimately fails at being both.
It starts with Rana and his best friend Janu who are climbing a mountain in bad weather. In the middle of a dense forest, they got separated and lost. Janu is lucky to be back home at last. But not with Rana. An extensive search was carried out. Rana not found. A week has passed. Rana's extended family decided to hold a tahlilan. Rana is considered unlikely to have survived and will surely die there. Dini can't accept that. As a mother, Dini doesn't want to just give up and still believes that her daughter Rana is still alive. Sure enough. After the tahlilan, Rana came home in the pouring rain.
Being declared dead after being lost in the mountain, Rana unexpectedly returns home, much to the happiness of her mother Dini, who didn’t want to give up the search. However, with her strange behavior, and the fact she only returned after seven days, her family casts doubts about who really returned to them.
Primbon only dedicates a few minutes to Rana’s disappearance and return. Because of this, the film had to rely on plenty of flashbacks to make a palpable contrast between the Rana before being missing and the Rana who returned, which lessens the potential impact her return could have felt like.
To be honest, if I were missing for seven days, and I returned home to my family suddenly acting like I’m the weird one, I’d be pissed. Maybe that’s why Rana’s acting all emo.
